Smile then, children, hand in handBright and white as the summer snow,Or that young King of the Grecian land,Who smiled on Thetis, long ago, --So long ago when, heart aflame,The grave and gentle Peleus cameTo the shore where the halcyon fliesTo wed the maiden of his devotion,The dancing lady with sky-blue eyes,Thetis, the darling of Paradise,The daughter of old Ocean

Don't you remember sweet Alice, Ben Bolt -- Sweet Alice whose hair was so brown,Who wept with delight when you gave her a smile, And trembled with fear at your frown?In the old church-yard in the valley, Ben Bolt, In a corner obscure and alone,They have fitted a slab of the granite so grey, And Alice lies under the stone

Upon the crests of tents the day-god threwHis rays oblique; blazed, dazzling to the view,The tracts of gold that on the air he leavesWhen in the sands he sets on cloudless eves,Purple and yellow clothed the desert plain

I love thee well my little wheel,And why I love thee I can tell:When tir'd of folly, shew and noise,Of feeling griefs, and feigning joys,Of visiting, and company,And all that's called society,I sought in solitude and peace,To sooth a mind too ill at ease,Thou kindly then thy aid didst lend,I found in thee almost a friend

Fair is my love, and cruel as she's fair:Her brow shades frowns although her eyes are sunny,Her smiles are lightning though her pride despair,And her disdains are gall, her favours honey;A modest maid, deck'd with a blush of honour,Whose feet do tread green paths of youth and love,The wonder of all eyes that look upon her:Sacred on earth, design'd a saint above